In the first official confirmation about the mega project in the offing, Pandey said: "With Aadhaar Seva Kendras, we are building hassle-free and resident-friendly enrolment and update facility infrastructure to ensure ease in Aadhaar related services to residents".

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is set to instruct operators to get back to their old ways of physically verifying customers, which will be a huge setback to the telcos who were hoping that the ministry will continue to push for Aadhaar for digital verification.

The government is working on a new process to issue mobile SIM cards in a hassle-free manner after the Supreme Court prohibited telecom companies from using the Aadhaar-based e-KYC authentication process.

The government on Thursday rubbished claims that 50 crore mobile numbers could face disconnection if the SIM cards procured on the basis of Aadhaar verification are not backed up by a fresh identification. Instead, it announced a new digital authentication mechanism for issuance of SIM cards, while asking people not to "panic".

Service providers can use offline verification tools like eAadhaar and QR code that leverage the unique ID without authentication, any access to biometrics, or revealing the 12-digit number, the Aadhaar-issuing authority UIDAI said Friday.

French cyber security expert Robert Baptiste also known as Elliot Alderson on Twitter alleged on Tuesday that Google India is still adding the toll-free number of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in the latest version of the setup wizard used for Android smartphones.

Telecom department will soon meet officials at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and law ministry to find out if Aadhaar-based biometric verification can still be used if a person so wishes.

Telecom operators to face challenges in subscribers enrolment as the telecom department today clarified that e-KYC system to register customers using Aadhaar have been stopped, a senior official said Thursday.

After PSU banks, the government is likely to infuse capital in two chronically ill telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, and the Union Cabinet is likely to take a decision on 4G spectrum allocation to them by the third week of the current month after DoT places the note before it for consideration.

At a high-level meeting at the PMO late Tuesday, it was also decided that the two telcos will frame a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to reduce their employee strength, which will be followed by a reduction in the retirement age to 58.